People mourn the victims of the New Year stampede. At least 35 people were killed in the Bund area in central Shanghai Getty

Worried relatives streamed into hospitals today, desperate for information about missing loved ones after a stampede during New Year celebrations in Shanghai’s historic waterfront area killed at least 36 people and injured scores of others.

At one hospital where the injured were being treated, police brought out photos of unidentified victims, causing dozens of waiting relatives to crowd around. Not everyone could see, and a group of young women who looked at the photos broke into tears when they recognised one of the dead.

The Shanghai authorities said 47 people had received hospital treatment, including 13 who were seriously injured, after the chaos erupted about half an hour before midnight. A number of injured people were discharged.

The deaths and injuries occurred at Chen Yi Square in Shanghai’s popular riverfront Bund area. The Shanghai government information office said one Taiwanese visitor was among the dead, and two Taiwanese and one Malaysian were among the injured.

A woman grieves in a hospital where some of the injured from the stampede were admitted

The cause of the crush is still being investigated, although some witnesses said it was at least partly triggered when people rushed to pick up coupons that looked like bank notes. However this version of events was disputed by Shanghai police.

The official Xinhua News Agency quoted one witness, Wu Tao, as saying some people had scrambled for coupons that looked like paper money being thrown out of a third-floor window.

However, Shanghai police said that while CCTV footage did show some papers had been thrown from a bar in a building overlooking the Bund, which a small number of people picked up, this did not cause the crush. “This incident happened after the stampede,” police said in a brief statement.

Pictures of the year: World News 2014

Pictures of the year: World News 2014

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January 2014

Sunlight streams through the windows of the Waterman Opera House, Nebraska

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January 2014

Palestinian policemen stand near burning tyres set ablaze by demonstrators outside Jalazoun refugee camp near the West Bank city of Ramallah

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January 2014

Hindu pilgrims take a dip at the confluence of the Ganges River and the Bay of Bengal, an act which they consider to be holy, at Sagar Island, south of Kolkata

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January 2014

Anti-government protesters blow whistles and shout slogans as they blocking a main road during the 'Bangkok Shutdown' campaign rally at Ratchaprasong shopping district in central of Bangkok

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January 2014

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January 2014

A worker stuffs a toy bear with cotton at a toy factory in Wuhan, Hubei province

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January 2014

Saudi Hawks display team perform during the opening of the Bahrain International Airshow 2014, in Sakhir, south of the capital Manama

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January 2014

Female police trainees and their male counterparts practise firing their weapons at a shooting range during a refresher training programme in Najaf

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January 2014

Film star Sylvester Stallone and MGM Chairman and CEO Gary Barber watch from the stage as Leo the Lion steps onto a cement block for his paw prints during a ceremony at the TCL Chinese Theater celebrating the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studio's 90th anniversary in Hollywood, California

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February 2014

Fireworks explode around the Fisht Olympic Stadium at the end of the Closing Ceremony of the Sochi Winter Olympics at the Olympic Park in Sochi

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February 2014

Women walk in front of the Dinamo Kiev's stadium in Kiev

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February 2014

Reflected in a puddle of melted snow, people and dogs walk past umbrellas suspended from trees at Spanish Banks Beach in Vancouver, British Columbia

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February 2014

Protesters burn as they stand behind burning barricades during clashes with police in Kiev

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February 2014

Russian Alexander Emereev (L) and Dmitry Zaytsev hold their marriage book after getting married in Buenos Aires

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February 2014

Amanda Perdomo celebrates after being elected Queen of the Santa Cruz carnival in Santa Cruz de Tenerife on the Canary island of Tenerife

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February 2014

A demonstrator jumps on a shield wall formed by riot police during a protest against the government of Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro, in Caracas

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February 2014

People look on as a veterinarian prepares to dismember a giraffe named Marius after it was killed at Copenhagen Zoo

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March 2014

A frontier soldier from the People's Liberation Army jumps through a ring of fire as part of training in Heihe, Heilongjiang province

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March 2014

A woman prays for the deceased of the earthquake and tsunami, as snow falls, at a place where she was employed at a photo studio at the time, in Rikuzentakata, Iwate prefecture, Japan

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March 2014

Float builder Jacques Tilly carries the head of a figure depicting Russian President Vladimir Putin in a shopping cart in Duesseldorf, Germany

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March 2014

A woman walks past barricades set up by anti-Yanukovich protestors at Kiev's Independence Square

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A woman leaves a messages of support and hope for the passengers of the missing Malaysia Airlines MH370 in central Kuala Lumpur

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March 2014

An Indian labourer sifts coloured powder, known as 'gulal', to be used during the forthcoming spring festival of Holi, inside a factory at Fulbari village on the outskirts of Siliguri

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March 2014

An Afghan honor of guard stands next to pictures of late Afghan Vice President Field Marshal Mohammed Qasim Fahim outside his house in Kabul, Afghanistan

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March 2014

Balloons in the shape of doves are released into the air during a memorial service for tsunami victims at the former Yuriage junior high school in Natori, Miyagi Prefecture on the third anniversary of the massive earthquake and tsunami that hit northern Japan

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March 2014

A Sikh warrior, wearing a huge turban attends the annual fair of 'Hola Mohalla' in Anandpur Sahib, in the northern Indian state of Punjab

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March 2014

Women toss their bras during the 5th Pink Bra Spring and Bra Toss and help Push Up the Fight Against Breast Cancer event at the Trocadero Square near the Eiffel Tower in Paris

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April 2014

General view during a fire in Valparaiso, 110 km west of Santiago, Chile

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April 2014

A U.S. flag sticks out the window of a damaged hot rod car in a suburban area after a tornado near Vilonia, Arkansas

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April 2014

A veterinary staff member of the Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Programme center conducts medical examinations on a 14-year-old male orangutan found with air gun metal pellets embedded in his body in Sibolangit district in northern Sumatra island

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April 2014

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff (R) poses with workers during a visit to the construction site of the metro station Sao Conrado (Line 4) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

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April 2014

Staff watch a speech by Russian President Vladimir Putin at a pizza restaurant in Simferopol

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April 2014

Men walk on a illuminated bridge in downtown Dubai, with in the background Burj Khalifa tower during the Dubai Festival of Lights

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April 2014

A woman stands with her daughters during Newroz celebrations at Kazlicesme district in Istanbul

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April 2014

Visitors of the Holi Festival of Colours throw special colored powders in the air in Barcelona, Spain

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April 2014

Volunteers light candles during the "Light of Peace in the Philippines" event in Oton town at Iloilo province, central Philippines. The event achieved a Guinness world record for the largest candle-lit image with 56,690 candles forming the map of the Philippines, breaking the previous record held by Pakistan

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April 2014

A poster bearing the image of a Pakistani girl whose parents, lawyers say, were killed in a drone strike, lies in a field at an undisclosed location in the northwestern Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province. A group of artists in Pakistan are hoping to generate "empathy" among US drone operators by placing giant posters of children in the country's troubled tribal regions

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April 2014

A view of the rescue operation underway after the ferry Sewol sank in waters off Jindo Island in the southwestern province of South Jeolla

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May 2014

Pope Francis prays at the Western Wall in Jerusalem's Old City

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May 2014

A boy gestures in front of a barricade on fire during a protest after French troops opened fire at protesters blocking a road in Bambari

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May 2014

Kashmiri government employees demonstrate as riot police spray purple-dyed water cannon during a protest march in Srinagar

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May 2014

Ukrainian National guard troops taking part in an exercise in presence of acting Ukrainian Prime Minister on the shooting range not far from Kiev

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May 2014

Brazilian soccer fan Marilza Guimaraes da Silva (63) plays with a ball, dressed in one of her many outfits matching the colors of the Brazil's national flag (green, yellow, white and blue) at her home in Brasilia

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May 2014

Fully-veiled Iraqi women flash the sign for victory with their ink-stained fingers after casting their vote in Iraq's first parliamentary election since US troops withdrew at a polling station in Baghdad's Karrada commercial district

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May 2014

A man kisses his son after he was rescued from the mine explosion in Turkey

AFP/Getty Images

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May 2014

A wounded man sits as he is treated at a makeshift hospital following a reported bombardment with explosive-packed "barrel bombs" by Syrian government forces in the al-Sakhour district of the northern city of Aleppo

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May 2014

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May 2014

People visiting "The Gateway to Hell," a huge burning gas crater in the heart of Turkmenistan's Karakum desert

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June 2014

A supporter of Afghan presidential candidate Abdullah Abdullah holds an Afghan flag after an election campaign rally in Paghman district of Kabul

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June 2014

Boys watch a screening of the 2014 World Cup Group A soccer match between Brazil and Mexico, at the slum of Varjao on the outskirts of Brasilia

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June 2014

Spain's newly crowned King Felipe VI walks toward the balcony of the Royal Palace to wave to the crowd in Madrid, Spain

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June 2014

An anti-royalist protester shouts as he waves a republican flag during a demonstration in Bilbao. Spain's King Juan Carlos said he would abdicate in favour of his son Prince Felipe, aiming to revive the scandal-hit monarchy at a time of economic hardship and growing discontent with the wider political elite

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June 2014

A Palestinian man walks inside a crater made by an Israeli airstrike as others watch in Gaza City

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June 2014

Smoke rises from a house days after part of the ground it was resting on collapsed into Lake Whitney, Texas

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June 2014

Dancers of a group representing China perform at the annual Carnival of Cultures parade in Berlin

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June 2014

An anti-government protester, covers himself with a shield during a protest against President Nicolas Maduro's government in Caracas

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June 2014

Artists perform during the international D-Day commemoration ceremony in Ouistreham, in Normandy, marking the 70th anniversary of the World War II Allied landings in Normandy

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July 2014

People cooling off in a waterpark in Suining, southwest China's Sichuan province

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July 2014

A Palestinian woman pauses amid destroyed buildings in the northern district of Beit Hanun in the Gaza Strip during an humanitarian truce

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July 2014

A man takes pictures of a sunken open-air parking lot after heavy rainfall hit Chengdu, Sichuan province. Four cars fell into the pit and one stuck on the edge as the ground sunk, according to local media

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July 2014

Youths release white doves during a performance marking the 100th anniversary of the start of WWI during the military parade as part of the Bastille Day celebrations in Paris, France

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July 2014

German national football team players cheer as they ride in an open-deck bus to Berlin's landmark Brandenburg Gate to celebrate their FIFA World Cup title

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July 2014

Fabien Cousteau swims outside the marine laboratory Aquarius. Cousteau, grandson of famed French oceanographer Jacques Cousteau, emerged from the turquoise waters off the Florida Keys, marking the end of a record-breaking, 31-day stay in an underwater habitat with a team of scientists and documentary filmmakers

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July 2014

Members of the Ukrainian State Emergency Service search for bodies in a field near the crash site of the Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 near the village of Hrabove (Grabove), in Donetsk region

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July 2014

Belarus' Catholics attend the annual celebration of Icon of the Mother of God in Budslav some 150 km north of Minsk. Thousands of Catholics come to Budslav as pilgrims to participate in prayer, confession and take part in a procession with candles, dedicated to the celebration of the anniversary Budslav Mother of God

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August 2014

Visitors run away as waves caused by a tidal bore surge past a barrier on the banks of Qiantang River, in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, China

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August 2014

Displaced people from the minority Yazidi sect, fleeing violence from forces loyal to the Isis in Sinjar town, walk towards the Syrian border, on the outskirts of Sinjar mountain, near the Syrian border town of Elierbeh of Al-Hasakah Governorate

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August 2014

Abass Yusuf holds in his mouth meat on a stick to feed a hyena in Harar, Ethiopia

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August 2014

The moon rises in the sky as seen through the Four Towers or C.T.B.A. (Cuatro Torres Business Area), one of the main symbols of Madrid, Spain

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August 2014

Would-be immigrants rest at Tarifa's harbour after being rescued off the Spanish Coast. Spain's coastguard rescued more than 200 sub-Saharan African migrants crossing the Strait of Gibraltar on small boats

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August 2014

Newborn panda triplets inside an incubator at a safari park in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou. Guangzhou's Chimelong Safari Park unveiled newborn panda triplets billed as the world's first surviving trio, in what it hailed as a "miracle" given the animal's famously low reproductive rate

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September 2014

A Kurdish Peshmerga fighter launches mortar shells towards Zummar, which is controlled by the Islamic State, near Mosul

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September 2014

Tourists have dinner as fish swim around them, at the Tianjin Haichang Polar Ocean World in Tianjin

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September 2014

Sri Lankan dancers perform a traditional dance during a welcome ceremony following the arrival of Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Bandaranaike International Airport in Katunayake

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September 2014

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September 2014

A mountaineer climbs up a ladder on Piz Beverin mountain (2998m) near Mathon above Val Schons in canton Grisons, Switzerland

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September 2014

Geologists from the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory surveying the lava flow from the June 27th flow from the Kilauea volcano in Pahoa, Hawaii

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September 2014

Chinese workers set up giant decoration flowers in preparations for National Day at Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China

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September 2014

Protesters and student demonstrators hold up their cellphones in a display of solidarity during a protest outside the headquarters of Legislative Council in Hong Kong

XAUME OLLEROS/AFP/Getty Images

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September 2014

Displaced South Sudanese women queue in knee-deep floodwaters to access fresh water originating from a borehole and stored in large bladders for them to access via a tap, at a makeshift camp for the displaced situated in the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) base in the town of Bentiu, South Sudan

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September 2014

Vehicles on roads during rush hour on the eve of the National Day holidays in Shanghai

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September 2014

A Syrian Kurdish girl looks at the Turkish police (unseen) as she crosses the border between Turkey and Syria near the southeastern town of Suruc in Sanliurfa province. Tens of thousands of Syrian Kurds flooded into Turkey, fleeing an onslaught by the jihadist Islamic State group that prompted an appeal for international intervention

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October 2014

A camel herder walks his camels at Pushkar Fair in the desert Indian state of Rajasthan

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October 2014

Pro-democracy protesters open their umbrellas for 87 seconds, marking the 87 rounds of tear gas that were fired by the Hong Kong police at unarmed student protesters in exactly the same location one month ago, at the Admiralty protest zone which has been newly dubbed 'Umbrella Square', Admiralty, Hong Kong, China

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October 2014

An explosion rocks Syrian city of Kobani during a reported suicide car bomb attack by the militants of Isis group on a People's Protection Unit (YPG) position in the city center of Kobani, as seen from the outskirts of Suruc, on the Turkey-Syria border

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October 2014

Protesters pose with a police shield outside the parliament in Ouagadougou as cars and documents burn outside. Hundreds of angry demonstrators in Burkina Faso stormed parliament before setting it on fire in protest at plans to change the constitution to allow President Blaise Compaore to extend his 27-year rule

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October 2014

A Palestinian boy practises his Parkour skills near the ruins of houses, which witnesses said were destroyed during a seven-week Israeli offensive, in the Shejaia neighborhood east of Gaza City

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October 2014

A man walks past thousands of pink and blue flags an anti-abortion group placed on the front lawn of Parliament Hill as part of a campaign in Ottawa

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October 2014

Mount Sinabung spews hot lava and volcanic ash as it is seen from Karo, North Sumatra, Indonesia

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October 2014

A woman crawls towards the body of her sister as Ebola burial team members take her sister Mekie Nagbe (28) for cremation in Monrovia, Liberia

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November 2014

Michael Brown's mother Leslie McSpadden (C) and other protesters react after hearing the grand jury decision in the fatal shooting of her son in Ferguson

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November 2014

A young girl places a rose at the Berlin Wall memorial in Bernauer Strasse, during a ceremony marking the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall

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November 2014

Grieving family members and friends of victims of the Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 disaster gathered around 298 candles representing the victims during a national commemoration ceremony in Amsterdam. Nearly four months after the Malaysia Airlines passenger jet was downed over eastern Ukraine killing all 298 people onboard, relatives and friends are gathering to commemorate the lives of victims

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November 2014

Australia's Prime Minister Tony Abbott and US President Barack Obama as they meet 'Jimbelung' the Koala before the start of the first G20 meeting in Brisbane, Australia

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December 2014

A man wearing a Christmas hat poses for photographer at a factory producing Christmas decorations in Yiwu, Zhejiang province, China

A saleswoman in her 20s, who declined to give her name, said she had been celebrating with three friends when the stampede occurred. “I heard people screaming, someone fell, people shouted, ‘Don’t rush’,” she said. “There were so many people and I couldn’t stand properly.”

One photo from the scene released by Xinhua showed one person performing CPR on a shirtless man while several others lay on the ground nearby, amid debris.

A friend of a victim covers his face as he waits outside a hospital where injured people of a stampede incident are treated, in Shanghai

Authorities had shown some concern about crowd control in the days leading up to New Year’s Eve. They recently cancelled an annual laser light show on the Bund, which last year attracted as many as 300,000 people.

In Beijing, President Xi Jinping has asked the Shanghai government to get to the bottom of the incident as soon as possible, and ordered governments across the country to ensure a similar disaster could not happen again, state television said.